GETTING RESULTS: End of an Ara

NEW ROCHELLE, NY -- Thirty years in the making, the time for celebration is at hand.

The Aramark Facilities Management contract with the City School District of New Rochelle, first signed in 1987, has been terminated, effective June 30, 2016. Two days of mop-up work remain this week during which Aramark will retrieve any remaining equipment and supplies. Aramark is expected to be gone for good by July 7th.

Talk of the Sound Publisher Robert Cox, your author, has led a single-minded crusade to get rid of Aramark for the better part of 8 years. That effort relied upon numerous current and former district employees, as well as concerned residents who provided needed information which exposed Aramark and its employees as corrupt in every way imaginable. The debt of gratitude the community owes them is substantial.

Ending the nearly three decade relationship between Aramark and the New Rochelle Board of Education was the centerpiece of the ReformFirst campaign, also led by Robert Cox, an effort to defeat a $50 mm bond proposal by the City School District of New Rochelle last December. After the bond's defeat, in exchange for agreeing to terminate the Aramark contract, ReformFirst agreed to support a new, improved bond this past May. That bond, based on a comprehensive needs assessment, for $106 mm, passed overwhelmingly with ReformFirst support.

The district is now in the process of directly hiring a new Facilities Director who will, in turn, hire his own team. The days of outsourcing Facilities Management to an outside vendor appear to over, for now.

"This is a significant milestone in the effort to bring about needed reform to what has been for many years one of the most corrupt school districts in New York State." said Cox. "This complements the ongoing effort to purge incompetent and crooked employees under the new administration."

Assistant Superintendent for Business & Administration Jeff White has been purging positions under him. Most notable among them was Dr. Christine Coleman, the tenured IT Director, who was unceremoniously fired then escorted from her office. Others include plumber Anthony Raffa, and, just last week, Anthony Paganico, the painter Working-Foreman. More are expected to follow in the coming months.